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But South Portland Police Chief Edward Googins knows that is an incomplete picture. Every year, untold numbers of guns change hands privately in Maine in a vibrant, underground gun marketplace, all legally flying under the radar of the federal background check system.

“The whole issue about background checks in the state – and I look at it really from both a law enforcement perspective and a common sense perspective – is you can’t have two different systems for purchasing guns,” said Googins. “It just doesn’t work. Because if there is a system that requires checks, and you can’t pass a background check, you’re going to go to the other system.”

Opponents dismiss it as a “feel-good” measure, predicting that mandating background checks for private sales as well as for gun loans that will do nothing to stop crime while unnecessarily burdening law-abiding Mainers. They also accuse out-of-state gun control groups of pushing a measure that will add costs, paperwork and legal uncertainties to the long tradition in gun-friendly, outdoorsy Maine of neighbors and friends lending each other hunting rifles or other guns.

“Universal background checks are a failed, New York City solution to a problem that Maine doesn’t have,” said Todd Tolhurst with Gun Owners of Maine, a citizen advocacy group.

A GOOD SHOT AT PASSING

If passed by Maine voters – and polls suggest it has majority support – the initiative would make Maine one of nine states that would require background checks for nearly all firearm sales, including private transactions.

It is impossible to determine the size of Maine’s private gun market simply because it is entirely unregulated. Neither buyers nor sellers are obligated to notify law enforcement about the sale, and Maine has does not have a registry or a mandatory permitting system for gun owners.

The most ambitious attempt at gauging the size of Maine’s private gun marketplace was undertaken by Everytown for Gun Safety, the New York City-based group that has bankrolled much of the Question 3 campaign and a similar ballot initiative on Nevada’s fall ballot.

Everytown estimates that nearly 3,000 firearms are advertised for sale annually by private sellers in Maine on the two most popular classified listings, the weekly shopper Uncle Henry’s and the national website ArmsList.com. That figure is based on a review of Uncle Henry’s publications between May 2012 and January 2016 as well as ads on ArmsList.com during that period.

“This unregulated market makes it all too easy for criminals and domestic abusers who are barred from buying a gun by federal law – people who would fail a background check if they tried to buy a gun from a licensed dealer – to easily avoid a background check altogether,” said Sarah Tofte, research director for Everytown for Gun Safety, which was created by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “From our past research, we know that criminals and domestic abusers are well aware of this type of unlicensed sale loophole – and they actively exploit it.”

Yet both Everytown and Tolhurst, the gun rights advocate, said that figure is likely well below the actual figure.

FBI data from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System showed that Maine ranked squarely in the middle – 26th among the 50 states – for the number of names run through NICS last year, although again those figures do not include private sales. The 94,744 background checks processed by the FBI in 2015 equaled one check for every 14 residents, compared to one check for every 1.4 residents of Kentucky (the highest) and one for every 99.5 New Jersey residents.

OPPOSITION FROM SHERIFFS

Two states that adopted similar background check expansions in recent years could provide additional context – or could further muddy the picture.

Since Colorado expanded background checks in January 2015 and August 2016, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s InstaCheck Unit conducted 30,290 checks on private sales. Those checks accounted for 5.1 percent of the nearly 600,000 firearms-related background checks conducted in Colorado during that time and resulted in 651 denials of sale, according to state statistics.

In Oregon, by contrast, private sales accounted for just 1.1 percent of the 318,000 checks conducted there since that state began mandating background checks in August 2015. And those reviews resulted in only 15 denials, according to data from the Oregon State Police.

It is unclear why the two states would have such a large disparity, although Colorado’s “private sales” figures appear to include sales at gun shows.

As in Maine in 2016, the issues were also intensely controversial in Colorado and Oregon. In Colorado, for instance, the vast majority of county sheriffs joined an unsuccessful lawsuit to overturn a law they said was unenforceable, with some sheriffs vowing to ignore the law altogether.

Maine’s law enforcement community is also split on Question 3.

The ballot initiative has been endorsed by the 350-member Maine Chiefs of Police Association, of which South Portland’s Googins is president.

“While no law can prevent every crime, this ballot measure will make Maine a safer place,” Falmouth Police Chief Edward Tolan said at the time of the announcement last month. “Maine has a strong tradition of responsible gun ownership and respect for the Second Amendment. Question 3 honors both of those values.”

Yet 12 of Maine’s 16 elected sheriffs signed a letter last week opposing Question 3.

“We live in one of the safest states in the country and strongly believe no provisions in this legislation would reduce gun violence or crime in Maine,” reads a letter signed by the 12 sheriffs. “In fact, Question 3 is unenforceable, confusing, poorly written and threatens to make law-abiding gun owners into criminals for simply loaning a firearm to a friend.”

SALES PITCH PACKS FIREPOWER

Uncle Henry’s, the weekly classified shopper where Mainers shop for anything and everything used, has long been a major resource for gun buyers and sellers.

Shoppers can find anything from antique muskets to brand new 9mm handguns, not to mention the controversial AR-15 rifles that have become a lightning rod in the debate over gun control because of their use in multiple mass shootings. And some sellers aren’t shy about using Question 3 as part of their pitch.

“Buy it now without an FFL in case the Libs get their way with Question 3,” wrote one seller of an assault-style rifle, referring to the requirement under Question 3 that all sales have background checks conducted by a “federal firearms license” holder, or FFL.

“Prices will go higher as election day gets closer buy now before its gone!” wrote another seller of an AR-15.

Opinions are divided on Question 3 even among aficionados of the popular weekly swap mag.

Tim Hendsbee, a 34-year-old Levant resident, began using Uncle Henry’s years ago to buy and sell guns for his personal collection and still uses it to boost business for his new sales and gunsmithing shop in Levant, H.F. Firearms. A veteran wounded in Iraq while deployed with the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion, Hendsbee now must run background checks on every buyer because he is a federally licensed dealer. He also offers to run background checks for private sellers or transfers for $20.

But Hendsbee opposes Question 3 because, he said, it would meddle with a long-standing cultural tradition in Maine and New England in which friends, neighbors and family members lend firearms to each other for hunting or other purposes. Under Question 3, family members down to first cousins would be exempt from background checks for “transfers.” Any transfers among non-relatives would have to undergo a background check first unless the lender plans to hunt in the presence of the other person.

Hendsbee said the ballot proposal will make law-abiding citizens jump through hoops and won’t stop the people intent on getting around the law.

“I think people are still going to find a way to get firearms and get them illegally,” Hendsbee said. “There are still going to be people willing to sell to them on the black market.”

In a possible indication of the sensitivity over the gun debate, some private sellers also make clear that they will require a background check or will only sell to someone who holds a concealed weapons permit, which requires a background check.

Among them is Harold Elliott, an Auburn resident who estimated that he has bought or sold 20 firearms through Uncle Henry’s over the years. In a recent ad for a 9mm handgun, Elliott specified that any buyer “must be Maine resident, not a felon or restricted from owning a firearm, and required to show positive ID and sign a bill of sale.” Elliott said he asks buyers if they are restricted from buying a firearm and often demands a concealed weapons permit.

“I wouldn’t sell to any Tom, Dick or Harry,” Elliott said. “I want to be sure.”

Elliott supports Question 3 and feels there is “nothing wrong” with requiring background checks on all gun sales, calling it a “common sense” move to keep guns away from criminals, terrorists or individuals with mental illness who should not possess a gun.

“Why should that bother anybody?” said Elliott, a lifelong hunter now in his upper 70s. “If you have nothing to hide and are a legitimate citizen and are not a criminal? I don’t know why people are fighting that.”

STRAW SALES OUT OF SIGHT

A poll of more than 500 likely Maine voters conducted in September for the Portland Press Herald showed that 61 percent supported Question 3, with 33 percent opposed and 6 percent undecided. Supporters also have an enormous fundraising advantage over opponents thanks, in large part, to the more than $4 million funneled into Mainers for Responsible Gun Ownership – the pro-Question 3 ballot question committee – by Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety.

Opponents, backed by the National Rifle Association, continue to portray Question 3 as an out-of-state campaign seeking to impose unnecessary burdens on Mainers who buy, sell and use guns responsibly.

Tolhurst, with Gun Owners of Maine, and other opponents, also suggest that the FBI’s background check figures are inflated because a certain percentage of people are wrongly rejected by the system. But he said the biggest source of crime guns is “straw purchasers” – people able to pass background checks who illegally buy guns for prohibited persons.

“The problem is no one has ever determined how to eliminate straw sales,” Tolhurst said. “The federal government has been trying for years and years and years, and there’s no way to do it.”

Gun control advocates disagree. Several attempts to strengthen federal laws to discourage straw purchases have been proposed but failed in Congress in recent years.

Googins, the South Portland police chief, said it is “not uncommon” for history traces on crime-related or recovered guns to “dead end simply because of a private sale” without a background check. That was even the case with the gun used to severely injure a South Portland Police Department officer during a 2006 shootout.

“It just makes sense,” Googins said of expanded background checks. “I’m a gun owner. I own many guns and there is no way I would sell any of my guns to anyone without first checking to ensure that they are able to purchase it.”

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this writer gets no credit or validation when they start article with flat out LIES, “UNDERGROUND MARKET PLACE” private gun sales are completely legal in Maine. What next UNDERGROUND MARKETPLACE FOR PRIVATE USED CAR SALES…WHAT NEXT GOING TO A DEALER TO STOP THE DANGEROUS WORLD OF PRIVATE CAR SALES TO PEOPLE WHO NEED TO BE BACKGROUND CHECKED TO SEE IF THEIR RIGHT TO REGISTER HAS BEEN REVOKED?

maineman11111

out of staters are telling mainers to vote yes on most of the ballot questions

And part of the problem there was that Cho and at least a couple of the others were merely “referred for counseling,” meaning that an involuntary commitment or mental competency adjudication wouldn’t have shown up on a NICS check. Also, Jared Loughner apparently lied on his ATF Form 4473, by not checking “yes” on the question about his use of illegal drugs.
Finally, all but one Democrat in the Senate (along with two Republicans and our own “Independent” Angus King) voted against an amendment bill that would have given incentives to the states to increase reporting to NICS of persons involuntarily hospitalized or adjudicated unfit to buy firearms because of mental illness.

jbacus

“So why should a parent be able to give their kid a deadly firearm without doing an appropriate background check?”

People like you, who vote for laws they haven’t read, are the reason we have crap like Obamacare. Had you read Question 3 in its entirety, you know there’s an exemption in the law allowing firearm transfers between family members.

GOPsks

Crap like Obamacare. So you prefer to 1. let people die in the streets (a lot like the current gun problem!) or 2. let people suffer until they get REALLY sick and go to the ER where they run up a serious bill that costs all of us more than it had to if we’d treated them in the first place?

Ryan Matthew

The problem is they don’t prosecute most of the criminals attempting to buy guns or their friends/family when they purchase a gun on the criminal’s behalf. They claim they don’t have the resources as it is.

So why, as a law abiding Mainer do I want to pass a law that will put me in jail over an accidental temporary transfer of my grandpa’s old hunting shotgun to my second cousin, whom I have seen pass background check time and time again?
Why would I want to spend more in fees every visit than the gun is monetarily worth?

And just which gun shops are going to be open on Thanksgiving day or at 4am when he is in town and wants to go out hunting (I’m sleeping in so we would need pay for two transfers).

Don’t let a billionaire with a political agenda buy your vote. Question 3 is dangerous and bad for Mainers. 12 of the 16 Sheriffs agree, VOTE NO ON QUESTION 3.

Sandwedge

Sick and twisted merchants of death.

Ryan Matthew

Are you referring to car dealers? Because vehicles cause an incredibly larger amount of deaths than firearms. Or maybe you mean fast food restaurants? Because obesity causes far more deaths than firearms as well.
Or perhaps the heroin dealers since in Maine in 2015 there were 275 heroin related deaths and only 15 gun related deaths (which include suicides and justified defensive shootings).

GT

I wouldn’t like it but, I would never be in a position in which it would be applicable. In case you don’t know, there is a specific set of criteria in which stop and frisk is allowed. Just walking down the street isn’t one of them.

By the way, Terry stops have been vetted by the SCOTUS and found to be Constitutional.

kennebec123

If 3 passes because of ignorant, anti-freedom voters, ignore it.

Buy, sell and loan your guns privately, without government involvement.

Government out of our bedrooms, liberals? Then government out of our Constitutional freedoms, hypocrites.

Roy Gutfinski

And what about black powder fireams which are not restricted by Federal law and can be legally sold across state lines by Amazon and other sellers. Are they trying to tell us that once these primitive firearms come to Maine they will be further restricted? This is insame.

Roy Gutfinski

I am heard Paula Silsby (former U.S. Attorney) and others shout all manner of statistics. What I want to know is how many firearms sold by non-prohibited individuals in Maine without any background check.have actually been used in crimes. Any other statistic is meaningless in the current discussion.

wakeup_call

This will be completely unenforceable against anyone who would wish to violate this law, if passed.
Simply passing a law wont stop criminal behavior in the before mentioned “underground gun marketplace”.
By the same logic since heroin, crack, rape, robbery and murder are already illegal we shouldn’t have any of these problems and they don’t exist, correct?
Gun free zones have not stopped mass shootings even though murder is already illegal. Perhaps we should make murder more illegal-er and crime more criminal-er that will get those evil doers to stop. Right?

Anyone who believes this law will stop illegal gun sales is either naive, willfully ignorant or completely unaware how the world works outside of artificial safe zones.
In my opinion this is a single part of a larger strategy aimed chipping away a constitutionally protected (in Maine and Federally) civil right with the ultimate goal of disarming law abiding citizens in the future.

If politicians like Bloomberg could lead by example and start by disarming his private army perhaps we the people would follow. Or not, just sayn….

robertg222

Waste of time and impossible to enforce. It’s time to stand up to the bigots and vote down any more gun control laws.

David Avitts

You will never find a stronger supporter of the right to keep and bear arms and the right to defend myself, my family, my property, my community and my country than me. I have always believed that any schemes to register guns and or gun owners is wrong. Requiring permission from any level of government to buy or sell a firearm is wrong.Requiring permission, or excessive fees to carry a gun concealed or openly is wrong. Requiring expensive training is wrong. Requiring background checks for ALL gun transactions is wrong. Enabling me to do a background check on a prospective buyer who is UNKNOWN to me is good common sense. Requiring me to get a background check on a family member or someone that I’ve known long enough to trust with a gun is wrong.
Allowing firearms retailers to sell guns to KNOWN customers without background checks is good common sense. Holding gun owners accountable for acts of negligence that cause harm or damage to someone or their property is good common sense. Holding someone accountable for CRIMINAL use of a gun is right. ( I personally think that ANY crime committed while in possession of a gun should be treated as conspiracy to commit murder punishable by life in prison, non-negotiable. )
Holding someone else responsible for the misuse of ANYTHING by a buyer is wrong and ridiculous.Holding someone responsible for the misuse of their stolen property is ridiculous.
Well regulated means common sense application of minimal law to protect an individuals right while reminding the individual of the responsibilities that come with exercising that right. Anything else is infringement.